Like the fashion industry, housing remodel or car feature, video marketing has trends. When whiteboard animation as we know it came on the scene, businesses saw how beneficial they were to introducing their company or explaining their product or service.
So now, business owners want to know if whiteboard animation is or isn’t a trend, and is it here to stay? I get it. I talk to CEOs all the time—they’re looking out for what’s best for their company. They want to make a wise investment in their video marketing choices. But I don’t think “is it trending?” is the most productive question to ask. The most important questions to ask should be based around: Is this going to help me grow my business.
I took some time to a list some of the questions that can help you decide if whiteboard animation videos are right for you, because you do have choices. Whiteboard Animation is just a choice of style, Motion Graphics Animation, 3D Animation, and Live Action (Stop Motion, Speed Ramp, etc) are all just styles of telling a story.
- What do you want your video to accomplish?
At the end of the day, almost every company wants their video to turn into more sale conversations. But while that’s the long-term vision, what are your short-term goals? Do you want to introduce company employees, promote a new product, or explain the process of how your company’s latest and greatest service works? Whatever the case may be, video should accomplish all of those things in a highly effective way.
- Is it wise to use a type of media that is a current trend and invest with the hopes that it stays around?
Trick question: the type of media that’s trending for marketing is VIDEO. Period. So, as long as your company recognizes the endless value in video marketing, you’re ahead of the game.
At the turn of the century, every company had to get a website to have a presence. Now, every company has to be producing video content for their website and social media accounts. In Huffington Post’s article, “Three Video Marketing Trends That Will Take Off in 2018,” Executive Creative Director, Arnt Eriksen, recognize the power of Explainer Videos.
He references an example of Buzzfeed’s “Tasty” series, saying it was “One of the most successful explainer video series that exploded onto the scene in 2017,” because it “partnered with food and cooking brands to produce a series of short videos (typically between one to three minutes in length) featuring a quick and ‘tasty’ looking recipe being made in double-time speed.”
When you have a brand or product that people are looking for and you provide them with new ways on how to use that product, it makes a recipe for success.
People love learning from explainer videos. And what’s a great form of explainer video if you are on a tighter budget? Whiteboard animation. They are fun to watch, provide a relaxed learning environment, and are “share-worthy” for social media and increased brand exposure if you do them in high quality.
- Is it a better idea to find some tried and true types of videos which are proven to be effective with the masses which are considered more traditional?
Name a type of marketing video (I list them in my blog, “5 Top Styles of Corporate Video: How to Decide Which is For You”) and I can tell you the name of a video that’s gone viral with that style. Here’s the thing—a video style doesn’t necessarily determine if something is going to go viral.
Almost 100% of the time, it’s the content that drives up views. At the same time, not all content for viral videos will actually help your company’s brand image or mission.
For example, a low-quality video of a rogue employee doing something grotesque might rack up a million views, but it won’t help a company look good in the public’s eye. That employee has tarnished the business. That’s why I’m all about the power of storytelling. We work with professional screenwriters who learn the in’s and out’s of your company to bring powerful, moving stories to the screen.
- How do businesses predict trends? Will an investment in those trends help a business over the long-term?
When small businesses evaluate their advertising budgets and how to spend their money, almost all decisions relating to their ROI (return on investment). People want to get their money back and a lot more.
This is completely understandable, but trends can be fickle. Remember when Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake wore matching denim-on-denim to the MTV Music Video Awards? While it might have gotten a lot of attention at first, it was out of sight/out of mind the next week.
When it comes to video marketing, it’s safer to invest in your company’s story than to invest in a trend that might fade. BUT, whiteboard animation isn’t just a passing trend! It’s actually here to stay for the foreseeable future.
- What is the future of whiteboard animation?
The most basic form of whiteboard animation is cartoon technology which was invented almost 100 years ago. Hollywood animation studios are still using the medium today but in more advanced and highly developed forms! The basis of all films, large and small, is the storyboard…That is a hand-drawn assembly of each scene in the movie. It’s the first whiteboard animation, in fact, in the 1920’s.
Many big brands are now using whiteboard animations to create a higher level of interest in their brands and ideas. So will this form of motion graphics continue to dominate the online advertising world? Yes!
Even if another popular style of explainer video pops up, that doesn’t mean whiteboard animation will die. In fact, because their animated, the shelf-life lasts years longer than other videos.
- So you like the style, it fits your brand…How can Whiteboard Animation Videos benefit your small business?
Every online company is trying to get even more attention from the masses—even Google. But if you’re a small business competing with big companies, you need high-quality video content that can really show your consumers you work in the big leagues.
Creating whiteboard animations is one of the ways you can level the playing field and generate hype for your business through its appealing imagery and educational experience.
If you would like help producing your whiteboard animations, our production team would love to work with you. Just reach out to us at www.ripmediagroup.com. We love producing motion graphic animation, live action video, whiteboard animation/speed drawing animation, and helping people like you reach your goals. Or start with a creative brief at https://ripmediagroup.com/creative-brief.
Remember, your story starts here!
